The number and variety of services and products available on the Internet, and in particular on the World Wide Web, has grown dramatically in recent years. Hundreds of new web sites go online every day. People can buy products and services, communicate with others worldwide for business or personal reasons, and access enormous amounts of information on many different topics.
Infrastructure to support various online activities is growing. For instance, electronic business card documents are known; see, e.g., http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/rifkinXMarks.html, and http://www.imc.org/pdi/vcardwhite.html. Using a Palm Computing device IR port to beam business cards, phone lists, memos, and add-on applications to other IR-enabled Palm Computing devices is also known. Beaming payments directly from a credit card or bank account is also apparently already known; see http://www.herring.com/insider/1999/0723/vc-confinity.html.
In addition, the identity space generally includes entities such as ezlogin.com, PassLogix, Inc., populardemand, SuperProfile, Zcentral.com, Jotter@Your Service, PrivacyBank.com, PrivaSeek, Microsoft Passport, verticalone.com, Zero-Knowledge Systems, Brodia-Remote Control Shopping, Anonymizer, Virtual Backpack, InterTrust Technologies, Corporation ProxyMate, ePassword Keeper, MSN MoneyCentral, yourcommand, and perhaps others.
A book entitled Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules (Hagel and Singer, Harvard Business School: January 1999) introduced a new Internet marketing term, “infomediary”. Essentially, an infomediary is an agent that acts on a user's behalf to interact with online sites based on the policies the user creates. For example, with the help of an infomediary, a user could put out what amounts to a personal Request For Proposal (RFP) in search of the best deals for a product or service. A user might even use an infomediary to exchange valuable Profile information for discounts or even cash. The infomediary could then use the power of demand to get better deals, thus creating a more competitive environment.
It should also be noted that documents being made of record in the Patent Office in this matter describe various goods and/or services which are already available to Internet users.
However, even technically sophisticated users of the Internet have expressed frustration with aspects of Internet usage. For instance, the '432 provisional application includes an article by Novell systems engineer Carrie Oakes entitled “The Human Face of NDS”. This article points out problems such as the tedium of providing the same personal information time and again at different web sites, and the risk of unscrupulous use of private information. It also discusses an embodiment of the present invention in the form of Novell DigitalMe™ technology. DIGITALME is a trademark of Novell, Inc.
Other articles in the '432 provisional application also discuss the DigitalMe™ technology, Novell Directory Services (“NDS”) technology, the marketplace for tools that help Web users control their personal information, and the need for such tools. Discussions in the incorporated applications of previous technology, illustrations of the need for control over personal information online, and other aspects of the technical background of the present invention are specifically incorporated herein by this reference. Underlying technology such as NDS is also discussed at appropriate points in the description of the invention later in this document, and in other materials that will be made of record in this document's Patent Office file. NDS is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc.
Review of such materials in the present context shows that it would be an advance in the art to provide better ways to manage personal information on the Internet. For instance, improvements are needed to reduce user tedium, to increase users' control over their private information, and to provide better ways to manage personal information according to the relationship of the parties involved.
Such improvements are disclosed and claimed herein.